INDUSTRY

The Texas A&M University at Qatar (TAMUQ) launched a supercomputing cluster named “Supercomputing Applications in Qatar for Research” or SAQR created by TAMUQ’s Information Technology Services (ITS). The launch marked the Supercomputing Day hosted by TAMUQ, for education and industry leaders to learn about the advantages and contributions of supercomputing. The event was co-sponsored by the Qatar Petroleum (QP). TAMUQ’s cluster, which harnesses the speed and power of over 200 processors, was developed for faculty and industry researchers to run complex engineering applications, such as oil field mapping, in mere hours instead of days or weeks. The cluster was created by linking 101 Apple G5 XServe computers together with specialized communication software. TAMUQ’s ITS built SAQR for a fraction of the price of a traditional supercomputer, and, unlike supercomputers, it is able to be upgraded by simply adding more computing nodes, it was explained at a seminar held on the occasion. “General research into petroleum and chemical engineering is vital to the long-term interests of the State of Qatar. SAQR is designed to provide our faculty researchers with the tools that they need to conduct this research and contribute to the long-term vision of Sheikha Mozah and Education City,” said TAMUQ’s Chief Information Officer, Dr. Timothy Chester, while launching the cluster. Dr Michael Kemp, dean and CEO, TAMUQ earlier welcomed the gathering. Jon Gardner, senior lead network engineer and Leigh Hausman gave a presentation on SAQR, its applications and benefits and the cluster’s specific capabilities. In future SAQR’s services would be made available to various entities in Qatar, apart from QP, which already owns one of the largest supercomputing facilities in the region. QP started using supercomputing in the 1980s in the field of oil and gas development and production. Dr Michael Gonzales, from Apple who spoke on the topic “Visualizing scientific data- how to see the forest without losing sight of the trees” analysed the various trends in scientific computing with a focus on the challenges in scientific data visualization. Dreux Ste Marie, a systems engineer from Apple gave a presentation on Tiger and Tiger Server, the latest release of Apple’s operating system.